PG North: It's an 'either oar' situation as NA tests the waters

Thursday, June 15, 2006

By Chris Adamski, Tri-State Sports & News Service

Of all athletes, rowers are said to have the biggest hearts.

 

Literally.

 

Anatomists say the combination of endurance and strength required allows those with the largest cardiac muscles to excel at the sport. But to hear Don Heckenstaller tell it, rowers figuratively have the biggest hearts as well. The North Allegheny High School girls' rowing team head coach presides over some pretty spirited athletes.

 

The North Allegheny girls' and boys' rowing teams earned more medals than any team in the nation at the U.S. Rowing national youth championships last weekend. The Tigers came home with two silver medals and a bronze in the competition at Harsha Lake near Cincinnati.

 

"You need the genetics, and big people with strength can do well," Heckenstaller said. "There's other sports you need eye/hand coordination, but this sport is just who wants to work the hardest. As long as they have the work ethic and want to work hard, that's who wins."

 

Senior Singen Elliott earned second place in the men's youth single and the team of seniors Joseph Brendel and Rory Dahl was second in the men's youth double. Third place in the women's youth quad went to seniors Brittney Kelly and Liz Rebhun and juniors Erin Dauson and Briana Pittman.

 

"It was a good culmination of a great scholastic season for us," North Allegheny boys' coach Melissa Titus said.

 

Much of the team will continue to compete in a summer league. The team is officially classified as a club sport but operates under the NA scholastic umbrella through the spring months. There are about a dozen high schools in the area that field rowing teams, including Fox Chapel and Hampton in the PG North area.

At the world's largest and oldest high school regatta -- the Stotesbury Cup Regatta in Philadelphia last month -- the Tigers earned a gold, a silver and a bronze.

 

"It's the regatta where all high school teams are measured," Titus said.

 

The Tigers were first in the men's junior quad (Brian Marcus, Mark Nolfi, Adam Reckless and Steve Marcus) and second in the women's senior quad (Kelly, Dauson, Rebhun and Pittman) for the second consecutive year in each. North Allegheny's men's senior quad (Dahl, Brendel, Bill Francis and Elliott) was third.

The North Allegheny men's junior double and women's junion quad had fourth-place finishes at East Fork State Park near Cincinnati.

 

Individually, North Allegheny is known as one of the top producers of NCAA rowing talent in the area. After seven athletes were recruited onto college teams last season, five will be competing at the next level next season. Brendel accepted a full scholarship to row at Stanford. Kelly received a partial scholarship from the Notre Dame rowing team and Elliot (Cornell), Dahl (Georgetown) and Kim Weaver (Bucknell) were recruited by the crew teams at the respective universities they will attend.

 

That is not the only way North Allegheny individuals were recognized this season. Elliott was one of 44 high school males invited to attend the junior national team selection camp later this month in Princeton, N.J.

 

From that group, the United States will select whom to send to the FISA world junior championships in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in early August.

Kelly and Dauson will also enter the women's U.S. Trials later this month.

 

"This is the best we have ever done," Heckenstaller said.